43 Ways to Die
by longscarves
Summary: Warning: Potential character deaths.


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1. Florina's spine goes first, and then she dies. Huey screams from above, and crashes into the forest. Huey survives, through his right wing is permanently mangled, and he is of no more use. But somewhere, he understands that he is the death of Florina—an arrow piercing through—a scream and a sudden uprise—Florina trying to clutch the reins—then falling from the sky like a rag doll.

She hadn't wanted to die alone.

2. Hector accepts the axe, and dies. There is life between the two occurrences, long life full of sometime sorrow and sometime happiness, and he has a child. She is beautiful, and rides on his shoulder. His impending death does not disturb him. Everybody dies, and the life of a warrior is not about death, but life. He finds some happiness that he will join his brother soon. There is no better place to die than on a battlefield, he thinks. It is simply a bonus that he dies protecting his daughter.

3. Eliwood dies because of an illness, one that came suddenly during a peaceful breakfast, and blood splattered across the white tablecloth. He is confined to the bed for three days and three nights before he finally dies, hand falling from his son's. His wife was already long gone, and he finds hope in joining her again. As a royal, his people would weep and cry in pain, but he is succeeded by his capable son, a red-haired boy whose eyes were still full of hope and the future.

4. An attack, an attack, the children are screaming. Lucius's orphanage is being destroyed, and the children, the children, and his sickness. He is older now, and short of breath, short of life, and the fire burns around him. Disease is slowly taking him, smoke filling his lungs, get out of here, Lucius, get out, and the children , the children! The disease finally takes him, but he crawls onwards, saving the children until he dies. The day after was bathed in sunlight.

5. Nino dies on a snowy mountain. She had not brought enough food with her, and she can no longer feel her fingers. She tried to put them in her mouth, but the feeling had already worn away. Her movements slow, and then she collapses. She knows she has to move, but she is no longer capable of doing that, either. The snow softly blankets her, and she is in a state of half-consciousness, dreaming of the man she chases, of the children she left behind. Her last regret is that she would not see her husband again.

But her corpse is found clutching a bloody locket in her hand, and there is a ragged black cape over her shoulders.

6. Ninian dies. She dies in a fit of sickness. Her husband is beside her, his face strong, his eyes wishing, and she thinks to her brother. The Dragon's Gate, so long ago, where she could see the other side, and her brother's solitary face, and his last question. She could have lived for so long. But seeing her husband, she knows that she had made the right decision.

7. Nils does not die. He will not die until the world is destroyed, or another dragon slays him. But the world of dragons is a different place than the human world. The Dragon's Gate is sealed, his own doing, and now he roams in a land that is familiar to him. He is a storyteller, and he thinks most about his sister. He can feel it when she dies, and he spends three years in a ritual mourning her death. His life is shrouded in his sister's death. He always wonders if she had made the right decision.

8. Rebecca is stabbed through the heart. Archers are vulnerable to close attack. The sword plunges into her neatly, and she is defenseless until the sword is drawn out again. An unbearable pain is about her, and she screams and drops her bow and collapses to the ground. She doesn't want to die—no—please—someone, help. Nobody comes. Her necklace breaks apart and scatters on the ground, and blood is everywhere, until she dies alone.

9. Dart dies twice. The first time was on a dock, on a hot and sunny day. He is Dan. His last thought is about his little sister and his best friend, and then he is no longer Dan. The second time was on a pirate attack. He thinks about two strangers who claim to know him, and then an axe is smashed on his head, and he is no longer Dart.

10. Wil dies in a fire. But with his burning arrow, he shoots the mage through the heart, and then tries to beat out his own fire that roasts him. The flames eventually burn out, but he is too weak. They find him and carry him back to the infirmary, where the clerics tend to him uselessly, until he regains conscious briefly, laughs, and dies.

11. Lyn dies on the plains, as she always wanted. It is a peaceful death, surrounded by family and friends. She can hear the sound of drums outside. She is an elder, so there is a large ceremony about her death. Her husband is beside her, her children with withdrawn faces. Her body will be burned after, but she requests they do it at sunset, when the wind is particularly fierce and plains roll like waves of the ocean she had seen so long ago.

She dies without regrets.

12. Jaffar dies in the shadows, stabbed by an enemy who was not quite real. The bounty hunter would collect the gold, and Jaffar would be another marker on the ground. He lies in his own puddle of blood in pain, and semi-lives in pain until he bleeds to death. He is the Angel of Death. The cold clutch of death on his heart was nothing new, nor nothing he feared. He allows himself to finally fade away from the world at last, the cold-hearted killer.

But his last breath is spent whispering a name.

13. Erk never had much luck. He was a failure in his work, he was a failure as a son, he was a failure as a student, and he was a failure at his job. Protect her, protect her, protect her—magic welling up—but he used it all, his body can't take it—must—must protect her—with the last of his life—no! A blow! He leaps in front of her and the sword stabs through him, and he dies. That was all.

14. Serra screams when she dies. She sees her escort die in front of her, trying to save her from a killing blow, and it makes a terrible, terrible crunching sound. She screams and screams and cries and cries, she is a cleric, she is a cleric, and the orphanage was so cold and dark and lonely, and she's _afraid_, she doesn't want to die, she doesn't want to die yet, she's got things to do—then the sword stabs her, and she dies.

Her worst fear had been to die alone.

15. The building collapses on Priscilla. Great pain rivets up and down, but she is more regretful that she doesn't die quickly. Her body is too frail, and her organs are being crushed. She weeps a bit, thinking about her brother. The day is long, and blood dribbles from her mouth. Oh, Lord Brother—those days—she is hallucinating towards her last, and she thinks about those wonderful days, with her brother, Mother, Father—where are you? She dreams that her brother comes, and cradles her head when she breathes her last.

16. Raven is a mercenary, and he does what he must. He dies by an assassin's hand, one cold night when he walks down the street. His name and reputation had grown too much, and though his past remained shrouded, it seemed that his enemies knew more about him than he'd like. He stabs the assassin before the thief runs, but the wound is too deep. If a monk had been there, perhaps the situation would have been different. But as it was, the great mercenary bled to death on a cobbled road on a rainy night.

17. Fiora dies from food poisoning. It is not the fault of any enemy, but merely some meat uncooked, and an innkeeper's carelessness. Her days were forlorn, but nobody stays by her side. Fiora blindly grants forgiveness and apologizes everywhere, but her mind remained on the day that her companions had all died. Perhaps, she thinks, she can finally find peace.

18. Farina doesn't want to die. She's got a debt in this world, she thinks. She won't die here. But she can't hold her broken little sister any closer, so she takes her lance and screams and rushes. She takes down most of the army before she falls, and then she realizes there are arrows in her, and the blood flows out, but she tells herself that those are just tears.

19. Sain thinks all girls should be loved. He doesn't think they're weaker than men. In fact, he considers them stronger, much stronger. But he still wants to tell her how beautiful she looks and how kind her demeanor is, because the compliments overflow in his hearts. If he had it his way, he would take care of every girl in the world. But as it is, the Pegasus knight kills him, and he forgives her.

20. Kent follows orders. Kent follows orders very strictly. Kent goes to war and kills fathers, brothers, sons. Kent obeys every order, Kent does not love and shuts himself inwards at the death of his friends. But Kent is a good soldier and he takes out a good amount of the army before an accident at the training spar deals him a deathly blow, and like a good soldier, Kent dies with honor.

21. Renault once had a friend. They both had foolish wishes, sinful wishes that should not have been touched. The sin took his friend. He himself remained deep within his own sins. He ponders about his friend at his death, an execution from an angry village that he had come to a long time ago, in his past that was covered in shadows. The blood on his hands was too much to wash, and he felt the rope tighten around his neck as he drops.

22. Natalie dies. Dorcas merely withers away, living a phantom life. He works as a wood cutter until an injury left him in his own dank home, staring up at the ceiling. He finally has enough time to ponder about life, but he thinks mostly about his beloved wife, who was no longer in this world. He does not eat. He does not sleep. He exists in a state of half-consciousness until he slips into death, and even then, he does not notice it.

23. Canas dies from disease. He had become susceptible to it through his late nights of reading. He dies knowing that his daughter is well-off, and still clutching a book in his hand. He reads on his own disease to the last second of his death, before the last choking sound leaves his mouth and he dies.

24. Isadora is felled in darkness. She is a knight. She knows this. But the Shaman laughs and she struggles her way out, except it's not just darkness, it's fear. It's all the fear that has been welling up inside of her, and she breaks, the strong knight, she breaks and falls and trembles. She tries to stand, but the darkness has already taken ahold of her, and she dies.

25. Hawkeye dies in battle, and does not see his daughter again. Lightning does not only strike once, he thinks. He wants to tell his daughter this. He wants to tell his daughter many things. He wonders, now, who will protect her. But then the lightning strikes a second time, and he is no more.

26. Heath dies in Bern. Traitors of the kind, he thinks, traitors are still traitors, and there is the fight for good and there is the fight for evil. But there is a part of him that didn't want to die. No. That refused to die. He doesn't want to die. But the fear passes away with his consciousness, and he accepts his fate, and wonders, briefly, about a thing called love.

27. Legault dies by a former Black Fang's hand. It was like a ghost that had come back to haunt him. Ah, no matter. These things, they come and go. Mm, but a terrible thing to waste, this life. At least he had stolen some good treasure. Now, now, no need to worry, it was only a death. He'd just be one of the million now, but that thought didn't bother him as it should.

28. Geitz dies from a pirate attack, which he thinks is fitting, but won't tell anyone why. He thinks about his little bird, so long ago, when he was young. He wonders , and as he bleeds to death on the ship, he watches a bird soar over the sun.

29. Oswin doesn't want to die. When he was young, he had wanted so many things. He had many so many mistakes in his life, and cost so many precious lives. But he wanted a chance to redeem himself. If he lived, he would do everything better. If he had a second chance, he'd show what he was worth. He was a general, but he was scared, until death finally took him.

30. Wallace hates to be defeated by a wyvern knight, but the dust was too strong and it cloaked the knight until the lance was firmly rammed into his body. The tears, he tells himself as he dies in the desert, corpse lost forever in the sandy dunes, was from the wind and sand.

31. Marcus survives the war, and dies in an Iron Maiden. Some shadowy assassin group. Marcus saw their faces. In his mind, he knows he must live and give this message to his liege, but the Iron Maiden is painful. They keep him alive in hopes of information that he will never give, and in his hazy state, he ponders on his country, his family, his honor. Then he dies.

32. Vaida dies of old age. So many young people had fallen around her that she considers it somewhat bitter. But she battles onwards, through the ages, through the centuries, until she is taken by time itself and dies in a small unknown inn, still gripping her lance and her wyvern lying beside her.

33. Matthew dies in some lonely mountain range. The battle is elsewhere, and he has not accomplished his mission yet, but they have another thief, so he doesn't really matter anymore, and he's left alone. He shivers a bit, from fear and cold. Death is cold. Was this what Leila felt? Leila, he should have his revenge. Leila, Leila, Leila, Leila. At least he would join her, he thinks, but he still grips his heart and closes his eyes at his last moments.

34. Karel becomes a legend, a serious, solemn, deadly legend that lurks in the darkness. The glint of his blade shines even in the darkest night, radiating a glow all its own, blood puddling around. He turns his back and walks away, and he does not die, for those who have died once do not die again.

35. Karla is weakened by childbirth, and dies. Her child lives on, on the blood-red plains that she had seen so long ago. Her last few moments are spent with those precious, grasping onto her child, with her sword by her side.

36. Bartre dies when he defends the village from thieves. The wound inflicted upon him does not kill him immediately. He has painful time, etched out from his life span, before he finally falls victim to his own bloodied wound and dies. The village mourns.

37. Guy doesn't want to die. He's a swordsman, so these things should be taken in with a steel heart. But he remembers soft hands in his hair, a laughing thief, a sweet lady. He remembers his first baby steps, and the tragic incident with the bow and arrow that forced him to flee his clan, so long ago. He's scared. He's really scared. He can't die. He won't. He's got debts to pay. But the bandits don't seem to care, and kill him anyway.

38. It is the way of the tribe to not fear death. It is simply a stage of life, part of the circle, part of the shape. Rath has no particular fears. His horse has already been long-gone. He is running out of food, and the enemies still surround him. Will the battle end soon? The sky is bathed in blood. He takes his bow, and arrows, and dusts off his boots. Calmly, he walks outside to his death, and accepts the cycle once more.

39. Harken had failed. His last lord had fallen, and he had been too weak. So he trained. He trained long and hard, fighting himself every single day, promising to serve his land, promising to protect and provide. Along the way, he meets a cunning shopkeeper, who promises him a small peek into the future if he so chose. He tries to decline, but a hand snakes out and grabs him, and he realizes, with the dagger in his stomach, that he had been tricked.

40. Lady Louise dies from old age. She is sweet and lovely, and violets lay around her so beautifully. Do you remember, my husband, when we first met? So long ago, when she was young. The vitality still lay within her until it ebbed away, and her head finally rested on her husband's shoulder for one final time, as her daughter weeps loudly and her son stands tall.

41. Lord Pent dies mysteriously. After his wife's death, he had drawn himself too close to his research, and contacted something mysterious from his textbooks. But he was still noble, and still great, and even towards his death, friends and family mourned. His son and daughter were more than capable of carrying out any tradition. He awaits to meet his wife, once more, who had promised him her bow and arrow so long ago.

42. Lowen does not make breakfast anymore. He dies on the battlefield, lance incapable of striking through. A miss, a miss, and he dies. The wounds from the tournament had been too heavy. He scolds himself in his last breath, and his mind is focused on what he will make for breakfast tomorrow, as if his death was no concern to him at all, not even at the moment that he died.

43. The tactician dies.

It doesn't really matter much. A simple tactician, the war is over. Stuff of legends. But a tactician is only human, and falls to death—falls into an obscurity, disappears from the world, blood on his hands by his very own orders. The tactician dies, and the story ends, the curtain falls, and Death has taken all.


End file.
